Friday, September 20, 2013

Meanwhile the other arm of the ABC, The Conversation is in a tiz about the loss of the Climate Commission. So concerned about dissent it has closed one article after just one comment, and that was removed. Having a conversation with yourself, is that the first sign of madness?

"A re-elected Labor government would ask a new "citizens' assembly" for climate change advice, under a key part of the ALP's new climate change policy set to be launched by Prime Minister Julia Gillard today."From The World today: Labor's revised climate change policy

JULIA GILLARD: Consensus on this issue should not depend solely on a fragile agreement between political parties. Adopting a market based mechanism to price carbon will transform the way we live and the way we work.

Such a major change cannot be made and unmade on the oscillations of the political pendulum.

If we are re-elected I will deliver a dedicated process, a citizens' assembly to examine over 12 months the evidence on climate change, the case for action and the possible consequences of introducing a market based approach to limiting and reducing carbon emissions.7/10/2013: Julia Gillard scraps climate assembly

Ms Gillard went to the election promising to bring together an assembly of 150 citizens to discuss ways to tackle climate change.

Speaking at a media conference after the first meeting of a new multi-party climate change committee, the prime minister said the policy would not go ahead.

"The committee concluded that in view of the creation of this committee and its intended outreach work that the proposal of a citizens' assembly should not be implemented and that there will be other ways of harnessing public dialogue engagement in the science of climate change and engagement in questions of pricing carbon,'' she said.

Wednesday, September 18, 2013

Back in 2007 ABC's alarmist current affairs program AM, lead by Tony Eastley (who was paid by the Climate Commission to MC one of its meetings) reported that the Arctic could be ice free by 2013 (see here). In its report ABC provided no critical questioning and did not ask for other opinions at the time. It ended with this dire warning from reporter Barbara Miller: "As the world meets in Bali, Al Gore went on to repeat his calls for tough action on climate change. The trouble is, it looks increasingly like it may already be too late."

The latest National Snow & Ice Data Center (NSIDC) – click image to view at source image of arctic ice extent showing that the summer melt for 2013 has turned the corner. The figures indicate the forecast ABC trumpeted was incorrect, only by about 5,000,000 square kilometers.

Perhaps we can have an update from Auntie, or would this be too embarrassing?

ABC gathers its information from a very limited number of sources. Despite a call for diversity in its charter its staff favour those with a similar viewpoint to their own regardless of the subject. On Climate Change for years this has meant the only "experts" ABC call upon for comment and opinion share the same Alarmist views on humanity's influence on the climate as the ABC's staff.

One of the voices the ABC could have have broadcast belongs to Dr Roy Spencer, a climate scientist from the University of Alabama in Huntsville. Dr Spencer looks after the Advanced Microwave Scanning Radiometer flying on NASA’s Aqua satellite, one of the key instruments monitoring global temperatures. A voice perhaps worth listening to. However a search of ABC's news archive could locate only one interview with Dr Spencer. Perhaps with the climate crisis becoming increasingly "Lukewarm" it's time for another.

Some other examples (sorry no links but if you are interested search NLA...1965...HOTTEST SEPTEMBER DAY Early bushfires widespread, The Canberra Times 27 September 1965 1994...Early start to bushfire season The Canberra Times 21 August 1994 1964...Bushfire danger. The Canberra TimesThursday 13 August 1964 1956...BUSHFIRE RISK IS GRIM STATES OFFICIAL. The Central Queensland Herald 13 September 1956 1950...Bushfire Peril In N.S.W. And Queensland The Advertiser 25 September 1950 1918...A Terrific Bushfire ENORMOUS DAMAGE IN TAMBO DISTRICT. MITCHELL, Townsville Daily Bulletin 26 September 1918 1932...HUGE BUSHFIRE. FARMS IN DANGER. Rockhampton Menace. The Brisbane Courier 27 September 1932

Saturday, September 7, 2013

ABC’s former chairmen Maurice Newman nailed the problem with the ABC: Groupthink. Groupthink on climate change, the environment, industrial relations, gender, marriage, the middle east. Name any issue and the ABC’s response can be predicted. In a multiple choice poll the ABC always promotes the response that characterises the loony left. This wouldn’t be a problem if the organisation was privately owned like the Green-Left Weekly, but it isn’t. It’s owned by the Australian people and its charter provides for the views of all Australians, not just the views of ABC’s city (ec)-centric staff.

With a new government in place it is time the ABC was placed back in the hands of the Australian people through its board. The ABC board, like the board of any organisation must be provided with the authority to run the ABC according to the ABC’s charter, not according to the whims of its groupthinking staff.

Friday, September 6, 2013

It is galling that taxes paid by all Australians go towards funding that Lefty/Green echo-chamber, which caters for a small urban elite, staffed with inner-city Ultimo types who couldn’t run a chook raffle.

The fact is that the ABC managing director does not run the ABC. Nobody does. Rather the ABC is controlled by a number of collectives which preside over the public broadcaster’s key television, radio and online products. The members of these collectives are invariably on the left and they appoint one another to key positions. This explains why the ABC remains a Conservative-Free-Zone without a conservative presenter or producer or editor for any of its main outlets. The contemporary Liberal Party understands the problem – as is evident from the comments of the likes of Senator Eric Abetz during Senate estimates committee meetings on the ABC. It remains to be seen what, if anything, the Coalition will do if it is elected to office on Saturday.

Monday, September 2, 2013

ABC appears to find news of crowd sourced and community funded projects worthwhile. For instance it recently spent sometime reporting on the use of crowd sourced funding to finance an investigation into the genetic health of sugar gliders (Link Here).

How long then will the ABC, who is supposed to represent the views of all Australians, take to report on a recent community sourced project that demonstrates that it is 50 times more costly to tackle climate change through taxes and emission trading schemes than to do so by adapting to change as it occurs.

To see the results of this community effort and to learn a thing or two about the economics of climate change follow the link below.

Aim of ABC NEWS WATCH

In a diversifying media landscape news editors face an increasingly difficult challenge reviewing the work of reporters under their supervision. Inevitably some mistakes, errors and substandard articles slip past their critical eyes.

The simple aim of ABC NEWS WATCH is to publicise the errors, omissions, and substandard reports produced by the News service and related entities of the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC). In doing so we hope to provide an independent check or audit on ABC news articles and in doing so improve the standard of ABC news reporting. After all it's our ABC.

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